Citrix Mobile Analytics Report Shows iOS Mobile Users Consume More Video than Android Users

Citrix has released its Mobile Analytics Report for the second half of 2014. The Mobile Analytics Report provides insight into subscriber behavior and related factors that determine quality of experience (QoE) for mobile data services. Key findings from the report include:

The latest report finds that mobile subscribers on LTE networks are 1.5 times more likely to watch video than subscribers on 3G networks. Those LTE-surfing subscribers are also viewing longer - 76 percent of Netflix viewers watch for more than five minutes when viewing over LTE but only 65 percent do so when watching over 3G – and watching higher resolution content. 

Social networking is the most popular mobile application category, with 40 percent of mobile subscribers engaging daily. According to the report, 47 percent of social networking data can be attributed to video and 40 percent to images. Taking a regional view, North American and the Middle Eastern subscribers have the highest video consumption on social networks with video data volume constituting 59 percent and 62 percent of total volume, respectively. Meanwhile, video consumption accounts for 39 percent of European mobile social networking data usage, with APAC following closely behind at 35 percent.

On a given day, half of mobile data subscribers are served ads over the mobile network and the mix of ad types is changing rapidly. The latest report finds that there has been a 20 percent increase in mobile video ads since the beginning of 2014, as brands are increasingly using this medium to make their pitch rather than with traditional banner ads. Last year, Citrix found that one video ad was served for every 20 banner ads served over mobile. This year, the ratio has increased to one video ad for every 16 banner ads served.

The findings in the Citrix Mobile Analytics Report are generated from the ByteMobile mobile data traffic reporting solution. The Mobile Analytics Report anonymously sources data traffic statistics from the 3G and 4G networks of the Citrix global tier-one customer base.

- On a given day, 8% of subscribers download and update apps over the mobile network, generating 14% of  daily mobile data volume.

- Accessing sports media outlet content over mobile typically drives only 0.5% of mobile data volume but  during major sporting events such as the World Cup, traffic spikes significantly, negatively impacting  subscriber quality of experience (QoE).

- Video-watching subscribers using iOS-based devices generate proportionally more video data volume  (38%) than do video-watching subscribers using Android-based devices (27.5%).

- The average Internet Radio listener in North America “tunes in” for 16 minutes at a time.

- Video stalling continues to be present in all geographic regions on both 3G and LTE networks. Stalling duration ranges from 7 seconds to 38 seconds per minute of video.

The findings in the Citrix Mobile Analytics Report are generated from the ByteMobile mobile data traffic reporting solution. The Mobile Analytics Report anonymously sources data traffic statistics from the 3G and 4G networks of the Citrix global tier-one customer base.